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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Reschke Offered, Treadwell's Top Five

Michigan's coaching staff raised some eyebrows over the weekend after finally offering 2013 Birmingham Brother Rice linebacker and MSU commit Jon Reschke, a Spartan legacy who hasn't shown much interest in the Wolverines. Since Michigan had previously turned away linebacker recruits like Alex Anzalone and E.J. Levenberry, saying they were full at the position, the offer caused concern that a current commit was looking around. That doesn't appear to be the case, according to Tremendous, with rumors that Mike McCray was considering Ohio State debunked.

So, why the offer? For one, Brother Rice is a very strong in-state program, and Reschke was reportedly none too pleased with the lack of an offer (or serious interest) from Michigan. More importantly, however, Reschke is a heck of a player—I thought he was deserving of an offer last year, and he's stepped up his game even more this season—and with the fluid nature of recruiting, it's entirely possible that the scholarship situation at linebacker has changed. While I'd be surprised if Reschke flipped from MSU, he's close friends with Shane Morris, and he'd be a worthy addition to the class.

Matters aren't looking up on the Laquon Treadwell front, unfortunately, as he named an ordered top five to Scout's Beth Long after Crete-Monee's state semifinal victory last weekend ($). That top five, in order: Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, Michigan, Michigan State. Treadwell hasn't even visited the two Oklahoma schools yet, though officials are planned to both, but he has been to Oxford; barring a late turnaround—and in recruiting, that's not exactly unusual—this won't end well.

As for a backup plan, scratch MD WR Paul Harris off the list, as he reaffirmed his commitment to Tennessee despite the news of Derek Dooley's ouster, per Rivals's Adam Friedman ($). While Harris leaves some room to look around, it doesn't sound like he'll consider Michigan. Michigan did host a committed 2013 prospect last weekend in Trotwood-Madison CB Reon Dawson, an Illinois commit, according to 247's Clint Brewster. The three-star could be another option if/when Gareon Conley starts taking visits.

Michigan also handed out a 2014 offer last weekend, to FL WR Artavis Scott, high school teammate of offered OL Mason Cole, per multiple outlets. Scott is a four-star on all three sites that have released early rankings and is also on the ESPN150 Watch List, so he's universally regarded as a top prospect. The Wolverines have established themselves as one of Cole's early leaders, which should help them with Scott; both visited for the Michigan State game.

[For the rest of the recruiting roundup, including Denzel Ward's junior highlights, hit THE JUMP.]

Blind Sided

2014 commit Denzel Ward just finished his first year of football. You'll be forgiven for forgetting that fact while watching his junior highlights; the first play, in which he blocks his man into a fence, was his first play of organized football. Yup, pretty down with that offer, you guys.

Also releasing season highlights is 2013 commit Taco Charlton:

Despite a significant amount of added bulk, Charlton is still able to dominate with his athleticism, and he's added a solid repertoire of pass-rush moves. He also looks much more disciplined and formidable against the run, something I noticed when watching him earlier this fall. This coaching staff appears especially adept at identifying raw talent early, as evidenced above and also in the cases of players like Conley, Logan Tuley-Tillman, and Channing Stribling.

Commit Playoff Roundup

This year's Michigan Division I state title game will be a rematch between Cass Tech and Catholic Central, and once again it'll prominently feature Michigan commits. The Technicians earned their title game berth with a 34-27 triumph over Lake Orian; Jourdan Lewis caught a 30-yard go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Shamrocks crushed Rockford, 35-6, in the other semifinal; Wyatt Shallman rushed for a one-yard touchdown while also adding seven tackles, three TFLs, two sacks, and two batted passes, according to his father.

I'll be in Columbus for The Game, but you can catch the state title game (or DVR it, most likely) Saturday at 1 pm on Fox Sports Detroit. Catholic Central will look to avenge a 49-13 title game loss to Cass Tech last year, while the Technicians are going for back-to-back state championships.

“It’s his athleticism,” Hales said. “He’s so athletic. There’s so much he can do. He’s not just an offensive player or just a defensive player. He’s a football player. Throw him the ball and he’ll do something with it. He’s not really obvious with his moves. He’s real slick and you can’t even tell what he’s doing and he makes people miss. And he’s got this competitiveness about him. He gets these kids going. He just doesn’t want to go home right now.”

I haven't seen this discussed yet (if it already has, my bad), but doesn't this offer to Reschke run counter to the spirit of the coaching staff's "you commit to us, we commit to you" no-visit policy? Granted, they obviously know more about the situation than us but I thought the entire reason behind turning away Anzalone and Levenberry was that they committed themselves to two lb commits in Gedeon and McCray. This was also the reasoning used to explain why they are no longer recruiting Dawson. If so, doesn't that come across as hypocritical? Like I said, if this has already been discussed thoroughly, then you can delete/neg the piss out of me. I just wanted to see if there were other opinions on the matter.

UM is committed to McCray and Gedeon still. Not like they're pulling their schollies. I don't think the coach's view of their depth chart needs, however, is static, nor do I think they cede the right to constantly reevaluate those needs when offering a kid at a particular position.

They stopped committing Anzalone because at the time they didn't need another LB at that position (McCray filled that spot, IIRC), and they stopped recruiting Levenberry because Levenberry committed to Florida State and made it clear that he was solid there. The reason they stopped recruiting Dawson was completely different; the staff has a firm "if you commit and then take other visits, we don't consider you committed," and Dawson wanted to take visits.

The staff isn't looking to proactively REPLACE Gedeon or McCray with Reschke as an upgrade, but rather to ADD him to the class (unless one of those guys plans to leave, but that does not seem to be the case). They may have told the two current guys that they wouldn't recruit anyone else (though at the time they were still recruiting Levenberry), but there isn't much public info about what promises were made.

It doesn't apply to Anzalone but I was referring to the second time Levenberry reached out to the coaching staff. Their position (according to Rivals) was "no thanks, you had your shot to commit but we are sticking to our promise we made to the LBs who have committed that we wouldn't take more than two." Allegedly, that's the quid pro quo of the policy. Now, if the policy was one-sided from the get-go (I.e. once you commit, no visits period no matter who we recruit), that's one thing. It's just that the justification behind the policy has been explained (again by rivals and others) in this two-way, 'coaching staff also commits to you' dynamic that doesn't seem to be the case.

Talking about Dawson has anyone notice the conversation betwwen dawson and shane on twitter. Shane is trying to talk him back into coming and dawson made the comment he thinks that ship has sailed. With shane telling him to make some phone calls and talk from the heart. Does anyone think this is even a possibility? Or is that book closed?

I would be Ok with Dawson coming back on board. I was really upset with the treatment he received by supposed Michigan fans talking about his 'Pops'. It was really disrespectful and wrong. I feel bad for the kid. I know we have a policy and I agree with it. People make mistakes and he, I think now realizes it. The kid can flat out play and play angry. I love that about Dawson.

The treatment he received from Michigan fans and his recruitment are two very separate things. There's no excuse for some of the things that were supposedly said (I don't follow him on Twitter and don't care to), but he was still shady about visiting Florida. If Michigan's coaches want their policies to be respected, they need to stick to them. If you welcome him back into the fold now, you're inviting trouble with 2014 recruits who get an itch to visit elsewhere.

That until the recent Big Ten Schedule change, it was only a rare scheduling quirk that Michigan-OSU would be after Thanksgiving, rather than every year like now. There used to be only a few games on Saturday after Thanksgiving. Actually sometimes more on Friday.

With the receivers we have recruited all Devin and Shane have to do is throw the ball high and it will be a catch. For some reason everyone keeps forgetting how fast Chesson is too, and every DB we've recruited has put up monster numbers at WR in their senior year, so they can switch and be a speed guy if we need them to. I'm not worried. Why does one receiver have to be far and away the best on the team? If they can all play their role, our OL will give Shane enough time to find them. Would be nice to have Treadwell, but I'm not worried.

"Michigan Defense" is dominating everything, in every aspect of life. That's a rough definition.

It sure would be nice to have a guy who can dominate a game, rather than having to spread it around to a bunch of mediocre guys. I do think Chesson has some potential to beat teams deep, but this is largely a collection of possession receivers.

I don't really get it. WR is the one area that we have not recruited well. I don't mean any disrespect to the receivers that have been recruited in the last few classes, but we have not been able to reel in any bue chip players at this position. We are loaded everywhere else, but dynamic wideouts are lacking. More often than not, if you want to be an elite team, you need to be able to strecth the field vertically. This is Michigan. Why can't we garner interest from 4 and 5 star receivers? Honest question.

End of world.... no- but there is so little experience at WR on that depth chart and nobody that is really proven.

I agree if you have 3-5 average to above average guys a stud may not be necessary- but 3-5 below average with maybe the potential to be average is not ideal to me.

Maybe we are looking at a future where TE's are getting a higher percentage of pass plays and good TE classes could mitigate the WR issues- but imo we need a big time threat. Spread guys or average WR are easy enough to contain- adding one legit threat also can give those spread guys or average WR more space and allow them to be passable if not stellar as a WR corps.

I would say those guys are average to above average. Remember, we still have Gallon and Dileo next year, so we really only need one or two guys rom that group to step up by then. Once those two are gone, the guys on that list will all be experienced and we'll have another class of receivers on campus.

I went to three of his games this year and you are correct about his willingness to go up after the ball. This will sound crazy but I saw him get better each game. He does a great job of catching the ball away from his body and is a big kid with a nice frame. I'm not saying he is going to come in and play right away but after a few years in the program I expect he'll be a big part of the team. Super nice kid too...

so we will be going another year without adding a stud WR. Right now we will have to make do with the middling 3 star and borderline 4 star types, but don't expect any game breakers on the team for the next few years.

Yeah, if only this team had a five star receiver Iike BJ Cunningham, Devin Smith, Junior Hemingway or Jared Abbrederis.

This is not to say that all of our WRs are going to be stars, just that you don't need to be a mega recruit to be a big time WR in the Big Ten. And at least a few of those guys, specifically Darboh, Chesson and York, look Ike they could be All- Big Ten quality receivers, or close to it.

One interesting MHSAA championship game, at least from a QB perspective, is the division 4 game- Detroit Country Day against South Christian (Friday at 7:30).

Detroit Country Day is the home of 2014 QB prospect Tyler Wiegers, who has visited UM and is on the radar. South Christian has a 2015 QB prospect by the name of Jon Wassink who has put up very good numbers recently. He's a young kid (obviously), but he has good size, athleticism, and throws a nice ball. Not sure Wassink is a high major prospect yet, but certainly MAC-level one at this point.